Dermot Company’s Dennis Wong Lands $100M Loan for Kips Bay Buy

Signature Banklent $100 million to an entity controlled by Dennis Wong—an investor in the Dermot Company and co-founder of San Francisco-based development firm SPI Holdings—for the acquisition of a 23-story Kips Bay apartment building at 377 East 33rd Street, a source confirmed to Commercial Observer.

While Real Estate Alert reported in November 2015 that real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities would be selling the 209-unit building for roughly $175 million, the source confirmed that the financing carries less than a 50 percent loan-to-value ratio, meaning the sale could total roughly $200 million.

The building, which is between First and Second Avenues, was completed in 1998. According to StreetEasy, the most recently available studio apartment at the building had an asking rent of $2,925 per month.

National multifamily owner Archstone first acquired the property for $131.5 million in December 2011, according to property records. AvalonBay and Equity Residential bought Archstone for $6.5 billion in 2012 from the estate of Lehman Brothers, as what has been widely reported.

When Dermot Founder William Dickey stepped down as chief executive officer last summer, Dermot executives brought in Mr. Wong and London-based Forum Partners to buy Mr. Dickey’s 50 percent stake in the firm, The Real Deal reported last November.

Signature declined to comment. Mr. Wong and a representative for Dermot did not respond to inquiries.